This application relates to a beverage filling plant for filling beverage bottles or containers with a liquid beverage filling material having a beverage bottle or container treatment arrangement and a method of operation thereof.
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine, which is often a rotary filling machine, with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material.
Some beverage bottling plants may possibly comprise filling arrangements that receive a liquid beverage material from a toroidal or annular vessel, in which a supply of liquid beverage material is stored under pressure by a gas. The toroidal vessel may also be connected to at least one external reservoir or supply of liquid beverage material by a conduit or supply line. In some circumstances it may even be possible that a beverage bottling plant has two external supply reservoirs, each of which may be configured to store either the same liquid beverage product or different products. These reservoirs could possibly be connected to the toroidal or annular vessel by corresponding supply lines, conduits, or other arrangements. It is also possible that the external supply reservoirs could be in the form of simple storage tanks, or in the form of liquid beverage product mixers.
A wide variety of types of filling elements are used in filling machines in beverage bottling or container filling plants for dispensing a liquid product into bottles, cans or similar containers, including but not limited to filling processes that are carried out under counterpressure for the bottling of carbonated beverages. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine.
After a filling process has been completed, the filled beverage bottles are transported or conveyed to a closing machine, which is often a rotary closing machine. A revolving or rotary machine comprises a rotor, which revolves around a central, vertical machine axis. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. A transporting or conveying arrangement can utilize transport star wheels as well as linear conveyors. A closing machine closes bottles by applying a closure, such as a screw-top cap or a bottle cork, to a corresponding bottle mouth. Closed bottles are then usually conveyed to an information adding arrangement, wherein information, such as a product name or a manufacturer's information or logo, is applied to a bottle. A closing station and information adding arrangement may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement. Bottles are then sorted and packaged for shipment out of the plant.
Many beverage bottling plants may also possibly comprise a rinsing arrangement or rinsing station to which new, non-return and/or even return bottles are fed, prior to being filled, by a conveyer arrangement, which can be a linear conveyor or a combination of a linear conveyor and a starwheel. Downstream of the rinsing arrangement or rinsing station, in the direction of travel, rinsed bottles are then transported to the beverage filling machine by a second conveyer arrangement that is formed, for example, by one or more starwheels that introduce bottles into the beverage filling machine.
It is a further possibility that a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can be controlled by a central control arrangement, which could be, for example, a computerized control system that monitors and controls the operation of the various stations and mechanisms of the beverage bottling plant.
This invention relates to a method as described in the introduction of Claim 1 and to an apparatus for the performance of the method as described in the introduction to Claim 7.
The sterilization of bottles or similar containers by the application of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to the interior surfaces of the container to be sterilized, e.g. with the use of a treatment medium in the form of an aerosol consisting of sterile air and the hydrogen peroxide and the subsequent treatment of the interior surfaces of the container with hot sterile air to heat the respective container and to activate the sterilization and to remove this medium as well as any quantities of residual water at the end of the sterilization phase or sterilization process is described in the prior art.
The treatment media are introduced by means of a treatment nozzle which has a single nozzle opening that is directed toward the bottom of the respective container, so that the respective treatment medium, among other things, after it strikes the container bottom, flows upward on the interior surface of the container and is thereby uniformly distributed on the interior surfaces of the container.
The effectiveness of the sterilization process depends on an optimized flow of the respective treatment medium, i.e. the treatment medium must be made to flow so that all the areas of the interior surface of the container are covered by the treatment medium or are contacted by this medium.
If bottles or similar containers have an internal contour that is different from the conventional continuous shape, in particular if wider areas or partially enclosed interior areas where flow conditions are less than ideal are formed by the internal contour of the container, an effective sterilization is not possible using the methods of the prior art and the media these methods of the prior art employ.
The object of the invention is to describe a method that makes it possible to also sterilize in an optimal manner bottles or similar containers with an internal contour that differs from the conventional shape and forms expanded areas and/or additional enclosed interior portions etc. The invention teaches a method described in Claim 1. The object of Claim 7 is an apparatus.
The above-discussed embodiments of the present invention will be described further hereinbelow. When the word “invention” or “embodiment of the invention” is used in this specification, the word “invention” or “embodiment of the invention” includes “inventions” or “embodiments of the invention”, that is the plural of “invention” or “embodiment of the invention”. By stating “invention” or “embodiment of the invention”, the Applicant does not in any way admit that the present application does not include more than one patentably and non-obviously distinct invention, and maintains that this application may include more than one patentably and non-obviously distinct invention. The Applicant hereby asserts that the disclosure of this application may include more than one invention, and, in the event that there is more than one invention, that these inventions may be patentable and non-obvious one with respect to the other.